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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0316.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION ROTORCRAFT DAVID LEARMOUNT/ LONDON UK cuts light helicopter accidents Pilot disorientation remains leading cause of fatal crashes, but safety has improved despite growth in rotorcraft fleet The UK accident rate for light helicopters is falling again after having reached its peak in 1998, the Civil Aviation Authority reveals in a new study. Among fatal acci dents, according to the study pub lished in the CAA's Helicopter general aviation safety information leaflet, the most frequent single causal factor was pilot disorienta tion, and for non-fatal accidents it was mishandling. In 1998 the rate per 100,000 fly ing hours for accidents that caused fatal or serious injury was more than 12.5. During the 1990s the rate leapt upwards and averaged above eight per 100,000h, but it fell steadily to about 5.5 in 2001, the most recent year for which the CAA was able to derive a rate. Pilot disorientation caused more fatal accidents than any other fac tor during 1997-2001 - eight out of a total of 25, or 32%. Mishandling and mechanical failure were the next most common causal factors, at 20% each. Among non-fatal accidents, mis handling consistently caused more than half of all events in every year studied. Most of the mishandling accidents occurred in one of the phases of flight close to the ground: landing, manoeuvring - including hovering-in-ground effect - or take off, with landing usually top of the list. Disorientation was the cause of relatively fewer non-fatal accidents, with the annual proportion between 7% and 16%. Practice forced landings annually caused between 7% and 13% of accidents. The CAA highlights the degree of skill needed in hovering, hover- taxiing and transitional flight, and warns pilots not to underestimate this. It also advises night fliers to mix visual flying with frequent flight instrument scans. The study covered helicopters with maximum take-off weights below 2,730kg (6,0001b). The size of the fleet increased from 765 to 942 over the period and hours flown from 135,000h to 154,000h. TRAINING Fidelity to build EC135 simulator Fidelity Flight Simulation has been given the go-ahead by US aeromedical operator STAT MedEvac to complete a full-motion flight simulator for the Eurocopter EC135. The device will be installed at the medical transport company's Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, base. STAT MedEvac provided prototype development fund ing. Following demonstration of the EC135 aerodynamic model, the company has awarded Fidelity a contract to complete the simulator, which has a six-axis electric motion base and visual system. All EC135 systems will be repli cated, but only those required for STAT MedEvac training will function, says Fidelity. • Kansas State University has taken delivery of an Aviation Simulation Technology AST 3000 flight training device, which can represent the Beech 1900, Cessna CitationJet, and Piper Saratoga IIHP and Seminole. Egypt's National Civil Aviation Training Organisation has bought another AST Hawk digital flight training device, simulating five aircraft from the Piper Warrior to Beech King Air. FLIGHT TESTING Liberty XL-2 returns to air Liberty Aircraft has resumed flight testing of its XL-2 two-seater after relocating operations from Colorado to Melbourne, Florida. The move was forced by the closure of Scaled Technology Works (STW), which was under contract to produce the aircraft. Certification, which was originally scheduled for late 2001 but had slipped to late 2002, is now hoped for by August. Rockledge, Florida- based Matrix Composites has been selected to replace STW as supplier of the XL-2's carbonfibre fuselage. Heart of Georgia Metal Crafters will continue to supply the metal wing. Liberty will assemble the aircraft at its Melbourne plant. Liberty has orders for 50 XL-2s and expects more after certification Liberty is flight testing the conform ing prototype, which was produced by STW before it closed. A static test article is required for certification and Liberty has reached agreement with STW's parent company Precision Castparts to relocate the tooling from Montrose, Colorado. The company, which has orders for 50 XL-2s, expects sales to pick up after certification. UPGRADES ADE offers re-engined Cessna 182 Monterrey, Mexico-based Aero- Diesel Engines (ADE) plans to dis play a Cessna 182 re-engined with Societe de Motorisations Aero- nautiques (SMA) Engines' Jet A- fuelled SR305-230 at the AeroExpo- 2003 show in Acapulco in early March. The re-engined aircraft is scheduled to be available this month for flight demonstrations. ADE has been established by David Zambrano Villarreal, presi dent of the Mexican aircraft owners and pilots association, to market, install and maintain SMA diesel engines. The company plans to obtain Mexican supplemental type certification for the re-engining of four aircraft types: the Cessna 182, Piper PA-25 Pawnee and PA-34 Seneca using the baseline 170kW (230hp) version and the Cessna 206/210 using a 225kW SR305-300 version. SMA says that certification of the 225kW engine is "one to two years away", however. Certification of the 170kW SR305 in the Cessna 182 is due by the end of the month, and on the EADS Socata TB20 later this quar ter, coinciding with the start of ser ial production at SMA's factory in Brouges, France. A further five certification pro grammes are under way involving the diesel. The company says it has 200 orders so far and plans to pro duce 2,000 engines a year. SMA, a joint venture between EADS, Renault and Snecma, says the SR305-230 retrofit kit will cost about €92,000 ($99,000). www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11-17 FEBRUARY 2003 25
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